Alfred Bester
See first quotes from Alfred Bester
18 Quotations from Alfred Bester
| alternate future n. | 1941 Probable Man in Astounding Science-Fiction July 89/2 So, although b can reverse his time machine and go back to his own date, he will never find the reality of the present he left. He will always land in another of the infinite number of alternate futures coexisting. |
| alternate future n. | 1941 Probable Man in Astounding Science-Fiction July 90/2 It takes time, lots of time before the alternate futures split off and differentiate. |
| alternative future n. | 1941 Probable Man in Astounding Science-Fiction July 88/2 A man enters a house and wonders whether to go upstairs or downstairs. He doesn’t know it, but if he goes up he'll meet a girl whom he'll marry and if he goes down he'll meet a man who'll murder him. Now at the moment he enters the house and wonders which to do, there are two alternatively possible futures awaiting him—murder or marriage. His choice decides which of those futures he shall enter and make real for himself, although in theory each alternative future may coexist and be real unto itself. |
| alternative reality n. | 1941 Probable Man in Astounding Science Fiction July 88/1 In 2941 when you started your journey through Time, you were a reality. In 1941 you were a reality. But now, back in 2941, you’re an alternative reality existing in the wrong alternate. |
| android n. | 1954 Fondly Fahrenheit in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Aug. 6 ‘I am not a machine,’ the android answered. ‘The robot is a machine. The android is a chemical creation of synthetic tissue.’ |
| darkside n. 1 | 1956 Stars My Destination (1996) 17 Great rents in the hull were blazes of light on the sunside and frosty blotches of stars on the darkside. |
| elsewhen n. | 1957 Stars My Destination in Galaxy Jan. 140/1 He jaunted up the geodesic lines of space-time to an Elsewhere and an Elsewhen. |
| esper n. | 1950 Devil’s Invention in Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 139/1 ‘How does he do it?’ ‘I don’t know… Tell me how Espers do it.’ |
| esper n. | 1952 The Demolished Man in Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. 13/1 The court is cognizant of the fact that Extra Sensory Experts perform valuable services for society in many walks of life…the Esper Medical Doctor, the Esper Attorney, the Esper Educator, the Esper Criminologist…to mention only a few; yet the Esper expert cannot properly be admitted to any court to give Esper evidence for the record. [both ellipses in original] |
| floater n. | 1953 Time is the Traitor in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept. 120 The floater that Frankie Alceste and Sima took from the spaceport was piloted by a Fisher aide who unlatched the cabin door and performed steep banks to tumble his fares out into the air. Alcester smashed the glass partition and hooked a meaty arm around the driver’s throat until he righted the floater and brought them safely to earth… On the road level they were picked up by one of a hundred cars which had been pacing the floater from below. |
| gyrocab n. | 1942 Life for Sale in Amazing Stories Jan. 180/2 The underground and surface transportation had failed altogether. There was not a gyrocab to be seen anywhere. |
| jaunt v. | 1956 The Stars My Destination in Galaxy Science Fiction Oct. 13/2 Space set a final limitation, for no man had ever jaunted farther than a thousand miles. [Ibid. 29/2] Then they all jaunted to the school and back to Times Square. |
| null-g n. | 1956 The Stars My Destination in Galaxy Science Fiction Oct. 48/1 I cite the Null-G anti-gravity installations of 2022. |
| planet-hop v. | 1953 Time is the Traitor in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept. 112 They never got Kruger. He started planet hopping and he’s still on the lam. |
| space force n. | 1950 Devil's Invention in Astounding Science Fiction Aug. 144/2 On March 20th, the war broke…. On July 11th he was brevetted to command of the wrecked Space Force, being jumped one thousand seven hundred eighty-nine grades over regular officers. On September 19th he assumed supreme command in the Battle of the Parsec and won the victory that ended the disastrous solar annihilation called the Six Month War. |
| space pirate n. | 1959 Science Fiction and Renaissance Man in Science Fiction Novel 104 The ideas of fourth dimension, time travel, outer space, microcosm and macrocosm, were fascinating, and I read and loved science fiction until its dissolution into pulp fiction in the thirties disgusted me. It was not until John Campbell rescued it from the abyss of space pirates, mad scientists, their lovely daughters wearing just enough clothes to satisfy the postal authorities, that I was able to go back to it. |
| telepath v. | 1952 Demolished Man (1978) i. 20 I am a 2nd Class Esper. I can telepath normal applicants rapidly and efficiently, but I cannot handle other Espers with the same speed and economy. |
| Terrene adj. 1 | 1961 in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction May 96/2
[in a review of |